Feb 22, 2010

Exhibit: Beth Levine - First Lady of Shoes

To put it simply, Beth Levine was one of the first successful female shoe designers in the world and for a limited time you can see her work on display at the Bellevue Art Museum. Beth championed unusual materials for footwear including vinyl, acrylic, and Lurex and helped introduced various shoe silhouettes into the American market including the mule and the fashion boot. In fact, Nancy Sinatra made Beth’s boots famous with her 1966 song “These Boots were made for walkin”.

Beth began designing shoes under the name of her husband, Herbert Levine, in 1950. The pair opened up a shoe factory in New York and the rest is history. A true visionary of the fashion world, Beth was honored in 1967 and again in 1972 with the Coty American Fashion Critics’ Award. She remains the only shoe designer ever to win the award twice.

The Exhibit runs February 18 - June 6, 2010 at the Bellevue Art Museum and is co-sponsored by Nordstrom.

Meet Sydney

Sydney Mintle is a fashion blogger based in Seattle. She began writing about the local shopping scene back in 2008 and has been sharing her love of indie designers and boutiques with readers all over the world ever since.